As usual, the Messenger is Bebe’s mouthpiece. They report the rug she bought for herself tax exempt in Tennessee was purchased with money from a “yet unnamed private foundation” for use at Mountain Cove Farms. Except she still can’t use the county tax ID for some other organization, and out-of-state government entities cannot get tax exemption in Tennessee anyway.

She broke the law, but she broke it FOR YOU! Bebe is doing all she can to get the farm renovated in time for tens of thousands of tourists to stay there this fall, and if she happens to violate a few laws along the way we have no place to challenge her or even question this mysterious new foundation that can’t do its own purchases or have its own tax ID number.

And we’re hateful for daring to challenge her.

Disgusting.

(How much longer before Heiskell hires Christi McIntyre from the Messenger to work for her? Larry Brooks got a county job based on his butt-kissing articles when he worked there, so after the election if Bebe wins, it shouldn’t be a shock if McIntire – who keeps signing her name to hack work like this – ends up with a sweet county position.)

In a real community this would lead to outrage and an investigation.

Early voting begins in just a couple weeks, on July 9th, and we need to get some questions sent to candidates. What do YOU want to know from the people running for elected office this year?

You can post your question in comments below or e-mail it to lu@cityoflafayettega.com . If it’s a question for every candidate or just ones from a specific race, please let us know. No questions for just one candidate, they need to apply to everyone running for a certain position at least.

If you’re a candidate you might want to be sure we have your e-mail address. Also, please don’t answer questions here – we don’t want candidates seeing their opponent’s answers ahead of time.

Hot all week. The Weather Underground (no relation) says we’re looking at freaking 113° for the high Friday. Is it too late to move Freedom Festival indoors?

Bad news is Hutcheson still lost money in May. Good news is it lost a lot less money in May than it’s lost in several years. We’ve been hearing some good things lately about the Hutcheson ER.

Three Lyerly residents have been busted for growing pot in a tunnel dug beneath a shed. The criminals in Chattooga County get extra credit for creativity.

The federal government may sue GA because runoff elections are scheduled too close to main voting dates, not allowing enough time for overseas absentee ballots to be mailed and returned.

This summer marks 40 years since the movie “Deliverance” was released, forever damaging the south’s reputation. Several communities along the Chattooga River (not the same one we have) where it was filmed are holding tourism events, but a lot of citizens are embarrassed and wish the whole thing would go away.

The film’s actual release date? July 30, 1972.

Speaking of stereotypical hillbilly silliness: If you plan to ever run for office, don’t dress up like a Klan member for Halloween.

Georgia is, for most purposes, a one-political-party state. But there needs to be a viable second party, to provide competition and keep leaders on their toes. The Libertarian party might be that competitor, except state laws make it difficult for their candidates to get on the ballot. That could change if enough Georgians vote for the Libertarian candidate for president this fall.

A lot of folks won’t vote third party because they see it as a wasted vote. But the candidate doesn’t have to WIN the presidential race in GA, he only needs to get 20% of the votes cast. If that happened we could have Libertarian primaries and candidates for state, local, and federal office in 2014 the same way we have Republican and Democrat candidates (sometimes) now.

There are some who won’t vote at all if their only options are Romney or Obama. Those people might as well throw in behind the libertarian, for the sake of open ballot access in Georgia.

And if it looks like a blowout, where Obama has no chance to win regardless, some folks who don’t care for him might decide to use that vote to benefit the state instead.

A poll (paid for by pro-charter school groups) finds that more than half of the state’s residents support the ballot question about changing the state constitution to allow more charter schools.

In other school news, most of the (few) schools left in Georgia with driver’s ed classes are cutting them this summer.

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